Monday, September 15, 2008

No noooo!

Someone please remind me to tune in on Sept. 14, 2044 - by my watch, that'll be the next no-hitter for the Cubs.

Thanks to a cruel twist of television scheduling - namely Week 2 of the football season - I was watching the Cleveland Browns struggle to keep up on a windy night as Carlos Zambrano pitched the first no-hitter for the Cubs since Milt Pappas in 1972.

Living within walking distance of the ballpark, you'd assume that someone would have been hollering enough to alert the neighborhood, but you'd be wrong.

I liked the reaction from his teammates, who downplayed how much they had to do to keep the no-no in tact. Granted, very few balls left the infield through the course of the game, but Mark DeRosa embodies my secret fear that I have for the fielders who back up a hot pitcher in these situations.

They totally know what's going on and will act accordingly.

"When he hit it, you hate to say this, but it was like, 'I'll bite the ball if I have to,''' DeRosa said. "You know what's at stake. I was fully prepared to sell out to make that play."